US 11,077,609 B2Granted

Building apparatus and building method

AssigneeMimaki Engineering Co., Ltd.

InventorKunio Hakkaku

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Abstract

A building apparatus for building a three-dimensional object includes: an inkjet head that ejects ink as a building material; a scanning driver that causes the inkjet head to perform a scanning operation of moving relative to the object being built; a flattening roller that flattens a layer of the ink; and an ink removal unit that removes, from the flattening roller, the ink that is scraped off by the flattening roller. The ink removal unit includes a flow channel formation unit that forms a flow channel of fluid that enables the ink adhering to the flattening roller to be removed by causing the fluid for removing the ink to flow out or flow in, and removes the ink from the flattening roller without scraping off the ink from the flattening roller. Hence, flattening the layer of the building material more appropriately.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A building apparatus for building a three-dimensional (3D) object by depositing a layer formed with a building material in a deposition scanning direction set in advance, the building apparatus comprising:

an ejection head, configured to eject the building material;
a scanning driver, configured to cause the ejection head to perform a scanning operation of moving relative to the 3D object being built, and cause the ejection head to perform the scanning operation in an in-plane direction orthogonal to the deposition scanning direction to cause the ejection head to form the layer;
a flattening member, configured to flatten a surface of the layer by being brought into contact with the surface of the layer and scraping off the building material;
and
an adhering material removal unit, configured to remove, from the flattening member, the building material that is scraped off by the flattening member,
wherein the adhering material removal unit includes a flow channel formation unit, configured to form a flow channel of fluid for enabling removal of the building material adhering to the flattening member by causing the fluid for removing the building material to flow in or flow out through the flow channel, and the building material is removed from the flattening member without scraping off the building material from the flattening member by using the fluid caused to flow out or flow in by the flow channel formation unit,
the flattening member is a flattening roller that flattens the layer by rotation,
the adhering material removal unit further comprises:
a suction nozzle, configured to suck the building material on the surface of the flattening roller, and
a gas blowing unit, configured to blow pressurized air to the surface of the flattening roller to move the building material on the surface of the flattening roller,
wherein the suction nozzle sucks the building material moved by the pressurized air blown by the gas blowing unit, and sends the building material to a suction container, and
the gas blowing unit is positioned at a downstream side of the suction nozzle in a rotation direction of the flattening roller, and
the gas blowing unit is configured to blow pressurized air to the surface of the flattening roller member from a position separated from the flattening roller.

10 more elements

an ejection head, configured to eject the building material;
a scanning driver, configured to cause the ejection head to perform a scanning operation of moving relative to the 3D object being built, and cause the ejection head to perform the scanning operation in an in-plane direction orthogonal to the deposition scanning direction to cause the ejection head to form the layer;
a flattening member, configured to flatten a surface of the layer by being brought into contact with the surface of the layer and scraping off the building material;
and
an adhering material removal unit, configured to remove, from the flattening member, the building material that is scraped off by the flattening member,
wherein the adhering material removal unit sucks the building material on a surface of the flattening member from a position separated from the flattening member to remove the building material from the surface of the flattening member,
the flattening member is a flattening roller that flattens the layer by rotation,
the adhering material removal unit further comprises:
a suction nozzle, configured to suck the building material on the surface of the flattening roller, and
a gas blowing unit, configured to blow pressurized air to the surface of the flattening roller to move the building material on the surface of the flattening roller,
wherein the suction nozzle sucks the building material moved by the pressurized air blown by the gas blowing unit, and sends the building material to a suction container, and
the gas blowing unit is positioned at a downstream side of the suction nozzle in a rotation direction of the flattening roller, and
the gas blowing unit is configured to blow pressurized air to the surface of the flattening roller member from a position separated from the flattening roller.

10 more elements

an ejection head, configured to eject the building material;
a scanning driver, configured to cause the ejection head to perform a scanning operation of moving relative to the 3D object being built, and cause the ejection head to perform the scanning operation in an in-plane direction orthogonal to the deposition scanning direction to cause the ejection head to form the layer;
a flattening member, configured to flatten a surface of the layer by being brought into contact with the surface of the layer and scraping off the building material;
and
an adhering material removal unit, configured to remove, from the flattening member, the building material that is scraped off by the flattening member,
wherein the adhering material removal unit comprises a gas blowing unit, configured to blow pressurized air to a surface of the flattening member from a position separated from the flattening member, and
wherein the gas blowing unit moves the building material on the surface of the flattening member by blowing pressurized air to remove the building material from the surface of the flattening member,
the flattening member is a flattening roller that flattens the layer by rotation,
the adhering material removal unit further comprises:
a suction nozzle, configured to suck the building material on the surface of the flattening roller, and
a gas blowing unit, configured to blow pressurized air to the surface of the flattening roller to move the building material on the surface of the flattening roller,
wherein the suction nozzle sucks the building material moved by the pressurized air blown by the gas blowing unit, and sends the building material to a suction container, and
the gas blowing unit is positioned at a downstream side of the suction nozzle in a rotation direction of the flattening roller, and
the gas blowing unit is configured to blow pressurized air to the surface of the flattening roller member from a position separated from the flattening roller.

11 more elements

an ejection head, configured to eject the building material;
a scanning driver, configured to cause the ejection head to perform a scanning operation of moving relative to the 3D object being built, and cause the ejection head to perform the scanning operation in an in-plane direction orthogonal to the deposition scanning direction to cause the ejection head to form the layer;
a flattening member, configured to flatten a surface of the layer by being brought into contact with the surface of the layer and scraping off the building material;
and
an adhering material removal unit, configured to remove, from the flattening member, the building material that is scraped off by the flattening member,
wherein the adhering material removal unit comprises a liquid supplying unit, configured to supply a liquid matched with a characteristic of the building material that lowers viscosity of the building material to a surface of the flattening member from a position separated from the flattening member,
the flattening member is a flattening roller that flattens the layer by rotation,
the adhering material removal unit further comprises:
a suction nozzle, configured to suck the building material on the surface of the flattening roller, and
a gas blowing unit, configured to blow pressurized air to the surface of the flattening roller to move the building material on the surface of the flattening roller,
wherein the suction nozzle sucks the building material moved by the pressurized air blown by the gas blowing unit, and sends the building material to a suction container, and
the gas blowing unit is positioned at a downstream side of the suction nozzle in a rotation direction of the flattening roller, and
the gas blowing unit is configured to blow pressurized air to the surface of the flattening roller member from a position separated from the flattening roller.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/180,018Filed 5 Nov 2018
Priority: JP JP2017-22135016 Nov 2017
Published: US 2019/0143598 A116 May 2019
Granted: 3 Aug 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

B29C 64/35
Auxiliary operations or equipment: cleaning
B29C 64/135
Characterised by the energy source therefor, e.g. by global irradiation combined with a mask: the energy source being concentrated, e.g. scanning…
B33Y 40/00
Auxiliary operations or equipment
B29C 64/112
Using only liquids or viscous materials, e.g. depositing a continuous bead of viscous material: using individual droplets, e.g. from jetting heads

Family

US 2019/0143598 A1Pre-grant publication · published 16 May 2019
US 11,040,484 B2Related patent
US 11,077,609 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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